Daily Archives: April 12, 2017

At a nondescript office in Palo Alto, Apple is rumored to have a small team of biomedical engineers researching better methods for monitoring blood sugar, reports CNBC.

Apple’s work on glucose monitoring is said to have started with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who wanted to develop a sensor that could continuously and non-invasively monitor blood sugar levels to improve quality of life. Apple is far enough along in its research that feasibility trials are being conducted at clinical sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it has hired consultants to sort out regulatory issues.

The glucose team is said to report to Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. [...]

One of the people said that Apple is developing optical sensors, which involves shining a light through the skin to measure indications of glucose.

Rumors of Apple’s work on advanced healthcare initiatives like diabetes management aren’t new. Early Apple Watch information suggested the wearable device would be able to measure things like blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

Many health-related sensors that Apple wanted to include in the original Apple Watch were reportedly dropped because the technology was not consistently accurate, but rumors at the time said Apple would pursue its work on more advanced health sensors. Apple has also made several health-related acquisitions and around the time the Apple Watch was in development, hired dozens of biomedical experts.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has since said that Apple does not want to put the Apple Watch through the FDA approval process, something that would need to happen for more advanced healthcare features, so it is not clear if this is a feature Apple foresees being added to the wrist-worn device. From Tim Cook in 2015:

“We don’t want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it — maybe an app, maybe something else.”

If Apple is planning on more advanced sensors for the Apple Watch, such features are not likely to be included in the third-generation device rumored to be coming in the fall of 2017. Information on that device thus far points towards a smaller update focusing on improving battery life and perhaps adding features like cellular connectivity.

While Apple works on its in-house own blood sugar monitoring solution, it has launched CareKit, a platform that allows app developers to create integrated software that allows patients and doctors to better manage medical conditions. Diabetes monitor One Drop was one of the first companies to support CareKit.

Editor’s Notes: The iconic Stan Smith silhouette is modernized courtesy of adidas’ premium sub-branch, Y-3, helmed by Japanese master of design, Yohji Yamamoto. While it retains its recognizable profile intact, the sneaker is modified with a zipper system to go along with its lacing component. A Y-3 shield branding in black on the heel tab and a full-length rubber sole unit caps off the stylish and simplistic black/white design.

Christie made his scathing remarks during a cable network morning show Wednesday, roughly the same time as when United Airlines chief executive officer Oscar Munoz said he felt “ashamed” watching the video of Dr. David Dao of Kentucky being dragged off his United Express flight in Chicago on Monday.

“What we saw the other night, unfortunately, is typical of the attitude of United Airlines,” said Christie.

The incident began as United was trying to make room for four employees of a partner airline, meaning paying passengers had to get off.

At first, the airline asked for volunteers, offering $400 and then when that did not work, $800 per passenger to relinquish a seat. When no one voluntarily came forward, United selected four passengers at random.

Three people got off the flight, but the fourth, Dao, said he was a doctor and needed to get home to treat patients on Monday. He refused to leave. Shortly afterwards, three Aviation Department police officers got on the plane, confronted him and ended up grabbing Dao from his window seat and dragging him down the aisle by his arms.

“They kicked that guy off the plane to make money,” Christie said Wednesday.

“I talk to constituents in New Jersey all the time who really, if you live in the northern part of the state, you have no choice but to fly United,” Christie said, blaming a large market share over competitors and growing pains between the company cultures of Continental and United, referring to the two airlines’ merger in 2010.

“United uses that: They overbook it, they have less planes, they make more money… They’re doing it with the permission of the federal government,” the governor added, calling out President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to look into how the airlines have been using their booking systems.

“What I’m saying to the administration is, stop them from doing it,” Christie said. “You want to do regulatory reform, let’s do it.”

In the video recording during the incident with Dao, other passengers are heard saying, “Please, my God,” ”What are you doing?” ”This is wrong,” ”Look at what you did to him” and “Busted his lip.”

After people were horrified by the video, Munoz said the airline was reaching out to Dao to “resolve this situation.” Hours later on Monday, his tone turned defensive. Munoz described the passenger as “disruptive and belligerent.”

By Tuesday, Munoz issued his most contrite apology yet, describing the incident as “truly horrific.”

“No one should ever be mistreated this way,” said Munoz.

Meanwhile Wednesday, there was more criticism of United Airlines on the grounds of its medical preparedness.

Dr. Amer Syed told WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell he was flying from Los Angeles to Newark when the flight crew called for a doctor. He found a young woman in agony and opened the onboard medical equipment.

Almost three weeks after canceling a vote on his health-care package over infighting among his fellow Republicans and the opposition of the Democrats, President Donald Trump dug back into the fight, threatening to withhold payments to insurers to force Democrats to the negotiating table. All images and written content is property of the listed RSS FEED if you would like more on this story and images please click the listed feed. http://www.wsj.com/xml/rss/3_7014.xml

Basically, because he was representing the interests of a country other than the U.S., he has to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, allowing himself to be scrutinized more closely by our government. Presumably to, y’know, make sure he isn’t committing treason against America.

Manafort’s spokesman released a statement clarifying:

“Since before the 2016 election, Mr. Manafort has been in discussions with federal authorities about the advisability of registering under FARA for some of his past political work. Mr. Manafort received formal guidance recently from the authorities and he is taking appropriate steps in response to the guidance. The work in question was widely known, concluded before Mr. Manafort began working with the Trump campaign and was not conducted on behalf of the Russian government.”

OK, that didn’t help.

Basically, Manafort isn’t admitting to working for Russia yet, but he IS admitting to working for their next-door neighbor. Well, a crooked politician in their government anyway.

Currently the FBI and the Treasury Department are investigating Manafort’s Ukraine work separately as it pertains to international money laundering (Yanukovych was ousted from his government seat because of a corruption scandal).

All this does NOT mean he’s off the hook for any dealings he had with the Russian government during the election. It’s just in addition.

BTW, Michael Flynn, who is also being investigated for his ties to Russia, previously registered as a foreign agent for his work with the Turkish government.

Srsly. Wasn’t anyone looking out for the interests of America? Oh right, of course not. They were PRO Trump.

XO’s newcomer Nav has been making noise for a minute now. His rise to stardom has been no mystery every since he announced his signing with The Weeknd‘s XO label. Then soon following it up with “Some Way” featuring his label boss. Not to forget his self-titled project NAV. The 11 tracks long project included his standout tracks like “Myself”, “Up”, “Good For It”, and of course “Some Way”.

The video is made up of clips which were filmed during his appearances at The Weeknd’s latest tour, and various after-parties. The video captures the celebratory vibe with an ode of seductive allures that come with stardom and “Good For It” is the perfect song because it showcases emotions of coming up. There are also very subtle cameos from Drake, The Weeknd and his XO crew.

Foreign secretary redoubles criticism of Vladimir Putin’s support for Bashar al-Assad and continues to push for tougher stance on Moscow

Boris Johnson has intensified his criticism of Russia, accusing it of being on the wrong side of history over Syria after it blocked a UN resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons.

The foreign secretary accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of being a “lifeline for the murderous Syrian regime” the day after he failed to win backing from other G7 nations for further economic sanctions on Russia.